Did my daily exercises and showered then put some laundry in. When I got out a new box of raisin bran from under the kitchen sink, it was damp from a water leak. :( We had discovered some damp things there a week or so ago, but I couldn't find a source of water and thought it might have been from water sloshing out of the tea kettle that rides on that shelf when we're underway. This morning, however, the drain pipes were a little wet, and I discovered that the compression fittings were loose upstream of the trap and right below the drains, so I tightened them up. Hope that fixes things. After taking care of the plumbing, I had my normal breakfast. Did some computer work while the laundry finished. Prepped the RV, and departed around 12:20 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.

We got to the Holiday gas station in Wasilla around 12:30 to use their free dump station. J left to go to a nearby KFC to pick up lunch while I dumped. I left around 12:50.

I got to the KFC in Wasilla around 1:00, and we hooked up the Jeep at the Hacienda next door before having lunch in the RV. J had used our coupons from the Oprah-Winfrey-sponsored free grilled chicken meal. We had tried to get the free meal back in May, but we had to turn in the coupon in exchange for them sending us another one because the original coupon campaign had such a huge response including suspected fraud. The replacement coupons were valid for use now, and J was able to get us a two-piece original-recipe meal instead of the grilled chicken meal. We left at 1:30 and headed to Anchorage to get our slide fixed.

On the drive down, the air conditioner stopped putting out cold air. :( It had been getting weaker lately, and finally gave up the ghost.

We stopped at the Fred Meyer in Anchorage on Northern Lights Blvd at 2:30 to pick up some milk. I dropped J off at the door then parked and waited. J was thoroughly impressed by the store which is like a Super WalMart, but with a more upscale presentation.

We got to the Sam's Club parking lot at 2:58 where we planned to spend the night. When we called the store earlier, they said they didn't encourage overnight parking and that there was a city ordinance prohibiting it, but people did it. When we got to the parking lot, there was one area with some RVs already parked there, so we went there. When I got out to unhook the Jeep, I saw a "No Overnight Parking" sign on the lamp post — hmmm. After some investigation, I discovered that most of the lamp posts had such signs, but there were a few that didn't — so I moved the RV over to an unmarked row. We left in the Jeep at 3:15.

We went to the WalMart across the street to return a water filter that had been very slow the first time we used it. We picked up a replacement and some other items.

We went to Stewart's Photo Shop downtown so I could buy some filter wrenches. I've had a polarizer stuck to my 24 Tilt/Shift for more than a month, so it was time to buy some filter wrenches so I can get it off.

Then we went to the REI so I could buy a pair of Merrell Jungle Mocs. J has had a pair of these slip-on shoes for about a year, and I've become quite envious as she's been able to slip them on and off quickly so as to not track dirt into the RV or friends' houses. We both looked at some clothing while we were there, but didn't get any. We left at 5:05.

We drove around Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport looking for moose. That's right, one goes to a major airport to photograph moose in Alaska — at least that's what J and D had been telling me. We didn't see any moose, but J pointed out the locations where she had photographed them on previous visits.

Then we went to Kincaid Park, just south of the airport, because that's another supposed moose hotspot. We didn't see any at Little Campbell Lake, but we saw lots of people swimming in the lake. It must have been really balmy because they were all in wetsuits! Actually, they were probably members of the Anchorage Triathlon Club. I enjoyed looking at the fit women and J enjoyed looking at the fit men. :) We left Little Campbell Lake and headed towards the Kincaid Outdoor Center at the end of the road. We didn't see any moose on the way there or on our way out of the park, and I was beginning to wonder what kind of "fish stories" J and D had been telling me.

We had a wonderful dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse downtown beginning at 6:50. I had eaten there on my previous visits and was looking forward to taking J there for dinner. Their Oatmeal Stout was as tasty as ever as was the bread that came right away. Their Lemon-Greek Salad has been renamed just a Greek Salad, but the dressing still has lemon in it. I was very disappointed that they no longer have their Grilled Rosemary & Garlic Salmon — it had been fantastic! Instead, I had their Macadamia Salmon ("Fresh Copper River Sockeye salmon pan-seared with macadamia nut crust, orange rum glaze, sweet cilantro infused oil, and mango ginger relish. Served over a crab rice cake and braised greens."), and it was very tasty. J had a Blue Cheese salad ("The BrewHouse classic, mixed greens, red flame grapes, caramelized pecans and stella blue cheese crumbles.") and a cup of Alaska Seafood Chowder ("Fresh Alaskan seafood, roasted corn, shaved fennel, bell peppers, slowly simmered in a rich crab broth. Finished with cream and dry sherry.") so she'd have room for some Creme Brulee. The Creme Brulee was huge — about 5-in in diameter, so I didn't feel so bad when I helped her eat it. :) We left around 8:30.

We went back to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to humor J — er, make that, "look for moose." We didn't see any, but we did see a Boeing Dreamlifter. That's a highly modified Boeing 747 that Boeing uses to transport sub-assemblies for the 787 Dreamliner from Japan and Italy to the US.

We went back to Kincaid Park at 9:30 to keep looking for moose. This time we saw two young bull moose walking across a construction site for a new sports field near the Kincaid Outdoor Center. How about that — one can go to Anchorage to see moose in Alaska. The setting was terrible with mostly bare dirt surrounded with a chain-link fence. Fortunately, the moose headed towards a grassy area where the ground sloped way down to a chain-link fence and we were able to get some decent shots. Then they went down the hill and grazed right by the chain-link fence for a while — a wonderful natural setting. :) I was about to give up and leave because the light was getting low, but the moose left the chain-link fence and crossed the wide open construction area and stopped on another grassy area where the ground sloped way down to a chain-link fence. The setting was almost perfect! By the time I got into position, only one of the moose was still up at the top of the slope, but he was very cooperative and even posed in front of some red berries.

We got back to the RV in the Sam's Club parking lot around 10:40.